ARA stands for Artistic Research Archive.
ARA is an international platform for the publication, distribution and dissemination of artistic research in printed media.
Initiated by MER. Paper Kunsthalle and co- founded by KASK, School of Arts, Gent; ARA aims to extend the question of possibilities and position of books as places to exhibit art, to the process of artistic research.
Connecting the academic book canon with the art and artist book, it opens a new reflective space where scholarly and artistic practices merge in the field of research, shaping a radically new generation of printed media. Thus providing the international community and environment for artistic research with a concentrated and searchable paper archive, ARA hopes to enhance within this community exchange and the building, across the arts, sciences and humanities, of an awareness and recognition of artistic research. Publications included on the ARA website can be peer-reviewed and are generally published in close collaboration with academic institutions.